Science Weekly: Science and Literature Special

We discuss science, fiction and 'lablit' with biologist and science writer Dr Jennifer Rohn. Plus, Robin Ince on the relative merits of science and the arts. And, behind the scenes at the IgNobel awards tour

We're all for blurring the lines between science and the arts, and this week James Randerson and the Science Weekly team discuss science, fiction and 'lablit' with our special guest Dr Jennifer Rohn.

Rohn is a cell biologist at University College London, and also a prolific science writer, as well as the founding editor of LabLit.com. She claims there's a void in literature — only around one hundred novels have ever been written that contain realistic scientists plying their trade as part of the plot. Can you suggest any examples of real science in fiction (as opposed to science fiction)?

Continuing this theme, comedian Robin Ince gives us his take on CP Snow's famous lament about the 'Two Cultures' and weighs up the relative merits of science and the arts in this week's Thought for the Pod.

Also in the show, Ian Sample goes backstage at this year's IgNobel awards tour, and finds out about the safety of sword swallowing; the links between country music and suicide; and scrotal asymmetry. (Click here , by the way, to go into our archive and hear about necrophiliac homosexual ducks.)

Meanwhile, Nell Boase fills us in on the etymology of the word 'butterfly' — do you know any better about the origins of the word? — and there's plenty of talk about robots frozen in space; pygmies; and a potentially lifesaving water bottle.